"Vinyl Verdict" - Various Artists

Album

U2 Related Content:

I Will – The Sky
Picture Postcard – The End
When You’re Dancing – Rhythm Kings
New City Blues – Nigel Hamilton
Work of Children – Know Authority
Take a Chance – Contact
In Too Deep – Deke O’Brien
Convoy – Departure
Zealano – The Fuze
My Baby Left Me – The Teen Commandments
President – Logic
Liar – The Posers

Background Information

In 1979, after the band Revolver had split, former members of that band still had songs they wished to record. They gathered together a number of local musicians to record three songs under the name “The Reasons”. The Reasons were Phil Byrne (Revolver) on vocals, Pete Holidai (Radiators from Space) on guitar and vocals. The Edge (U2) and Bill Morley (Revolver) on guitar, Kevin Helly (Revolver) on bass, acoustic guitar and backing vocals. Dave Moloney (The Vipers) played drums and Gaby Smith was on keyboards and wurlitzer. The band got together in Lombard Studio in Dublin to record three songs in the summer of 1979. The three songs were “Something’s Better than Nothing”, “Private World” and “My Baby Left Me”. The Edge played guitar on two tracks, “My Baby Left Me” and “Something’s Better Than Nothing”. It was Bill Morley who played guitar on the third track, “Private World”. Adam Clayton had also shown interest in playing bass on these recordings but the band was happy with the bass player they had in Helly.

This would mark the first time that a member with U2 recorded with another artist other than U2. The Reasons was shortlived, only existing for the recording of the of these songs. Shortly thereafter, Byrne with Moloney would go on to form “The Teen Commandments”. The band was popular live, but had not recorded any material, and when approached to contribute for the “Just for Kicks” album, they offered up the song “Something’s Better than Nothing”, which was released in 1979. That album also featured U2, who contributed an early version of “Stories for Boys”. The Teen Commandments would also use the track “Private World” from that session as a single. The third song, “My Baby Left Me” did not see the light of day until this 1981 compilation, “Vinyl Verdict”. The compilation, was produced by Scoff Records and featured the Teen Commandments track on the second side of the album. The album was only released in Ireland.

Phil Byrne was asked about whether The Edge played bass on the track: “Nope guitar all the way, the solo on ‘Something’s took about eight hours! LOL”

A demo tape of the three songs has been digitized and circulated on the internet. Of the songs, “Something’s Better than Nothing” is recognizable as the version which was released on “Just for Kicks”. “My Baby Left Me” is a different version of the recording than what is found here, although the guitar on the track is remarkably similar to that on the demo tape. The sessions did take the better part of the weekend, resulting in multiple takes of all three songs, which were used in later years.